Against the backdrop of a troublesome launch that involved reports of cryptocurrency being locked in its bridge, Shiba Inu’s layer-2 attempt boasts a wallet count of more than 1.1 million, at time of writing, according to data from Shibariumscan.io. 

At the same time, the platform claims a daily transaction rate of around 125,000, with its most active day, on August 25, registering just north of 130,000 transactions.

What is Shibarium?

Though Shiba Inu began as a memecoin successor to the much larger Dogecoin (DOGE), developers behind SHIB have long been making efforts to legitimize the project, and add genuine utility to an otherwise purely speculative asset.

These efforts have culminated in Shibarium - Shiba Inu’s Ethereum layer-2 network, which launched its mainnet in mid-August 2023. 

At base level, Shibarium is another Ethereum L2 aimed at increasing scalability and reducing transactional costs. Gas fees on Shibarium are paid in BONE and users must lock some 10,000 BONE (currently just over $10,000) to become eligible as a validator. 

SHIB and BONE in Decline…

Despite the ostensibly positive nature of the aforementioned news, both Shiba Inu (SHIB) and ShibaSwap (BONE), the latter of which is used for gas payments on the new Shibarium L2, have experienced consistent price declines over the past week. 

One could be forgiven for expecting some positive price movement, given the ostensibly well-received nature of the Shibarium L2. However, such positivity has not been forthcoming, over-shadowed by uncertainty and turmoil in the wider cryptocurrency landscape.

At time of writing, SHIB and BONE hold market capitalizations of $4.47 billion and $234 million respectively, according to data from CoinMarketCap.